George Church | AIChE

George Church

Professor
Harvard Medical School and MIT

George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of  PersonalGenomes.org, which provides the world's only open-access information on human Genomic, Environmental & Trait data (GET Conference). His 1984 Harvard PhD included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing & barcoding. These led to the first genome sequence (pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in  1994 . His innovations have contributed to nearly all "next generation" DNA sequencing methods and companies (CGI-BGI, Life, Illumina, Nanopore). This plus his lab's work on chip-DNA-synthesis, gene editing and stem cell engineering resulted in founding additional application-based companies spanning fields of medical diagnostics ( Knome/PierianDxAlacrisNebulaVeritas ) & synthetic biology / therapeutics ( AbVitro/JunoGen9/enEvolv/Zymergen/Warpdrive/Gingko, EditasEgenesis ). He has also pioneered new privacybiosafetyELSIenvironmental & biosecurity policies. He was director of an IARPA BRAIN Project and 3 NIH Centers for Excellence in Genomic Science (2004-2020). His honors include election to NAS & NAE & Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He has coauthored 650 papers156 patent publications & a book (Regenesis).